What are you looking at?
This movie scene keeps coming back to me. Over and over again. All year long. I finally had to write it.
"You guys. You lollygag when it comes to proposing legislation. You lollygag when it comes to getting bills out of committee. You lollygag when it comes to taking a vote. You know what that makes you? Larry?"
"Lollygaggers!"
"Lollygaggers."
- with apologies to the writers of Bull Durham.
Sensing a bit of reluctance from West Michigan lawmakers when it comes to actually doing any hard work during the "lame duck" session.
Maybe we should follow their lead. Maybe everyone should take the last two months of the year off, put away the difficult stuff, just skate through the holidays. Your boss won't mind. Honest.
What do you think? Would that fly at your place of employment?
The K-zoo Gazette feels it, too.
We hope the governor doesn't have her heart set on an SBT replacement before this legislative session ends. Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema warns he has some priorities of his own for these last few weeks that the GOP controls the House. And current House Speaker Craig DeRoche doesn't sound especially enthusiastic about Granholm's proposal to replace the SBT with something that would bring in equal revenue.
DeRoche is probably too busy trying to figure out a way to screw up the Merit Scholarship. He strikes me as the kind of guy who can only think about one malevolent behavior at a time.
To his credit, Ken "It's too hard" Sikkema is perhaps the only one who has shown a sense of responsibility here. He is willing to work on the SBT, as long as he can mess with the teachers. Was that part on the petition drive? I don't think it was.
The rest, well, they seem happy to leave Michigan businesses and job creation up in the air for now.
Businesses considering a move to Michigan have virtually no way of estimating what their future tax costs would be without knowing how the next business tax is going to be structured. It is telling that, shortly after the Legislature hastened the end of the SBT with no replacement in sight, one Wall Street bond-rating firm immediately downgraded Michigan.
You see, it wasn't about job creation. It wasn't about making a better business climate. It was all about having something to print on the campaign literature.
The thought that the SBT work might go down easier with a Democratic House keeps coming up, but people seem to forget they weren't the most energetic and trustworthy bunch, either. Watch as Michael "I'm not a Republican, but I play one on TV" Sak displays his lack of will for meeting this challenge.
"I wouldn't be supportive of it, unless you could really draft and craft a reasonable plan that would address the issues and replace the $1.9 billion dollars that would be lost, and in my opinion I don't think it would be acceptable to do it during that period of time".
Bzzzt! Wrong answer, Mike! The correct answer is, "We will work hard to address this important issue because it relates directly to job creation and we will do everything in our power to help the citizens of Michigan". See, that way, it looks like you actually care about what is going on, even if you can't get it done in this time frame!
I've been called the "Betsy DeVos of the left" by one person in my life, which is flattering and scary all at the same time, more scary than anything else because I don't really want to be like that. Besides, I'm funnier and I provide pictures. But, sometimes I wish I were calling the shots like Betsy used to do (still does?) - Mr. Sak would be on speed dial.
Jerry "I'm outta here" Kooiman rolls over for the cameras, also.
"From what I've seen, from what I've heard, it's basically what she proposed last year, that the legislature rejected, even members of her own caucus were opposed to it, and if that's the package she presents in terms of the single business tax I wouldn't give it very good odds at all."
That's the spirit, Jerry. You keep denying those companies that overall tax cut that was proposed. You won't have to deal with it if you can just run out the clock.
Glenn Steil Jr. wants to "work", but he doesn't want to face the music his band wrote, either. Keep in mind he wants to do away with the SBT altogether, an idea that even DeVos didn't dare give full support to.
"It's my opinion that we should look at not replacing it, but that's a radical thought, but I think that our conversation should start there. I don't believe that we should pass anything that large in such a small amount of time".
So, did you believe those campaign promises about bringing more jobs to Michigan? All those concerned legislators telling you how hard they were going to work for you? How important it was to take care of business back in August when they jumped off this cliff?
Ha ha. Fooled you again.
If they don't want to do the job, perhaps we can just take back 3 months of salary from them and tell them to go home for the year.
Same goes for Rick "Isn't this rushing it?" Albin. Let's put him back anchoring the weekend news. Seems I remember him cheering these guys on back then, but is questioning the wisdom of working now. Twice this week he seemed to be taunting the idea that the Governor should expect anything to get done.
The quacking begins in earnest next week. I better go take some more pictures of ducks.